Croatian First Deputy Prime Minister Radimir Cacic arrived in the County Court in Kaposvar, Hungary, shorty before 9AM Friday to attend a hearing at which a verdict will be handed down for a traffic accident with two fatalities he caused in Hungary in 2010.
Cacic was accompanied by his Croatian attorney Cedo Prodanovic. Katalin Liptak, who was driving the Skoda Fabia in which Cacic crashed with his Chrysler 300C in January 2010, also arrived in court for today's hearings. In the fatal accident, Katalin Liptak and Zoltanne Hitter survived the crash, but Liptak's 81-year-old mother and 60-year-old husband later died of injuries they sustained in the crash.
Cacic told reporters outside the courtroom it was up to the court to decide on his legal responsibility. He said that citizens said their opinion about his political responsibility at the elections and the party said its opinion at the party election.
Before the the verdict is announced, both the defence and the prosecution will give their closing arguments.
Since the start of the trial, Cacic has been claiming that he he did not drive too fast, but that he ran into a cloud of fog before hitting the car in front. He said he was driving at the speed of 125 km/h, which is below the allowed 130 km/h speed limit.
The prosecution, however, insists that Cacic failed to adjust his driving to the conditions on the road.
The Cacic trial started last September and ended last Thursday when two expert witnesses who had already differed in their opinions whether Cacic had driven too fast or not reiterated their assessments.
One expert witness claimed that the accident had been caused by speeding and the other claims that the two passengers in the Skoda Fabia sustained fatal injuries when their car crashed into the motorway barrier
Both experts agreed the Skoda Fabia, driven by Katalin Liptak, was going about 40 kilometres slower than Cacic's Chrysler.
At his arraignment in late September 2011, Cacic, who became deputy PM after the crash, said he felt responsible and expressed regret, but rejected the charge that he had driven too fast, claiming that visibility had been poor.
In his later comments to the press, the Croatian official said that "accidents cannot be reasons for resignations" and that "if there is responsibility, then one can resign," although some time ago he had announced his withdrawal from politics in the event of a non-suspended prison term for the crash.
Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said that the traffic accident involving Cacic was "ethically neutral" which was why he would let Cacic decide whether he would remain in his cabinet or resign following the court's judgement.
If found guilty, Cacic can face a prison sentence of up to five years.
